Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is facing mounting scrutiny in her home state over possible links to a massive pandemic-era fraud scheme, even as she remains publicly silent and her former staff attempts to shift blame onto Republicans and the Trump administration.
According to Fox News, Omar has neither publicly nor privately responded to a formal request from the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, which is probing her potential ties to the sprawling Feeding Our Future scandal that federal prosecutors say siphoned roughly $250 million from taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs. Yet a recent email from one of her most senior former aides, sent to the committees Republican chair and obtained by Fox News Digital, offers a revealing glimpse into how Omars political camp appears to view the controversyand whom they want voters to hold responsible.
"As the District Director for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from 2019-2022, I read with interest your comments in Session Daily regarding H.R.6187 - MEALS Act," former Omar District Director Kendal Killian wrote in an email Wednesday afternoon to Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee Chair Kristin Robbins. The message, which was also sent to Rep. Dave Pinto, the committees lead Democrat, was laced with condescension and framed as a civics lesson for a lawmaker who once served as a congressional legislative director.
Killian took issue with Robbins public remarks about Omars role in advancing the MEALS Act, a bill that expanded federal waiver authority for school meals during COVID-era school closures. "If the quote is accurate, you said, She passed the MEALS Act in March 2020. Given that you were elected in 2018, I find it surprising that I need to explain to you how a bill becomes law, but one person cannot unilaterally pass legislation," he wrote, implying that Robbins was either ignorant of or deliberately misrepresenting the legislative process.
Republicans in Minnesota and Washington have long argued that the sweeping school meal waivers tied to Omars MEALS Act helped create the permissive environment that allowed the Feeding Our Future fraud to explode. They contend that the unprecedented flexibility granted to schools and non-school sites alikecombined with weak oversight and rapid funding expansionopened the door to rampant abuse of federal nutrition dollars.
Killian, however, insisted that because Republicans controlled both the Senate and the White House when the broader COVID relief package passed, they bear "responsibility for implementation" of the relevant provisions. "So your characterization that Rep. Ilhan Omar passed this legislation unilaterally (and oversaw its execution) is off base," he wrote, arguing that Omars critics are overstating her role and ignoring the GOPs control of the executive branch and upper chamber at the time.
In an effort to further distance Omar from the scandal, Killian claimed that the specific bill critics have been citing "never even passed." He asserted that Robbins was suffering from "confusion," insisting that "similar legislative language to that in the MEALS Act was included in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act," the larger COVID-19 relief bill that ultimately became law in March 2020.
"While the original Meals Act (which never passed) was more similar to universal school meals legislation Omar championed and Representative Sydney Jordan in Minnesota later shepherded, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (supported by McConnell and signed by Trump) added waiver authority that facilitated much of the Feeding Our Future fraud," Killian wrote. "The fraud was not committed under any bill authored by Omar, but rather under broader COVID-19 legislation and by taking advantage of USDA emergency waivers granted by the Trump administration. Those flexibilities, combined with weak oversight and rapid funding expansion, created conditions that were later exploited in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme."
In bold text, Killian stressed that the Families First Coronavirus Response Act was not "chiefly sponsored" by Omar and declared it "thus is grossly inaccurate to claim so." He closed his email with a pointed jab at Republicans, suggesting that "perhaps" the committee should subpoena President Donald Trump instead of Omar if it wants to assign blame for the fraud.
While it is true that the MEALS Act did not pass as a standalone bill, it is formally listed on Congress.gov as "related legislation" to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which did become law and contained nearly identical school meal waiver provisions. Robbins told Fox News Digital that Killian is "lying" about Omars impact, arguing that the core purpose of the MEALS Actexpanding USDA waiver authoritywas in fact incorporated into the broader legislation that Omar herself has repeatedly touted.
"Im talking about the MEALS Act that got incorporated in the larger coronavirus package," Robbins explained, pointing to the official legislative record. "In the related bills section it links to the Ilhan bill and lists it as one of the bills included in the Act, the language is identical."
Congress.gov, the official legislative database maintained by the Library of Congress, confirms that Omars MEALS Act (H.R. 6187) is listed as "related legislation" to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (H.R. 6201). For conservatives who have long warned about the unintended consequences of sweeping federal waivers and emergency powers, that linkage underscores Omars substantive role in shaping the policy framework that was later exploited.
Robbins also highlighted multiple instances in which Omar herself took credit for the provisions that ultimately became law, using them as a political selling point to constituents in her Minneapolis-based district. In Omars own September 2020 press release, she explicitly stated that she "passed into law this spring" the MEALS Act provisions and described them as legislation that "directly authorized these school meal waivers."
"Ilhans MEALS Act, a bill aimed at protecting students access to school meal benefits during school closures, was passed into law as part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act," Omars campaign website reads, leaving little doubt that her political operation saw the measure as a signature achievement. Those statements stand in stark contrast to her former aides attempt to portray the MEALS Act as a bill that "never even passed."
Omar also publicly fought the Trump administration when it signaled in the summer and fall of 2020 that it would begin scaling back or allowing some of the waivers to expire, in an effort to restore pre-pandemic program rules and rein in emergency authorities. In August of that year, she again linked her legislation to the broader waiver regime, writing in a letter to the administration, "In March, Congress authorized the use of waivers in the MEALS Act and the COVID-19 Child Nutrition Response Act in order to continue to provide school meals for children during the pandemic."
When later asked whether she regretted her support for the MEALS Act in light of the fraud revelations, Omar was unequivocal. "Absolutely not, it did help feed kids," she said in December, framing the waivers as a humanitarian necessity rather than a policy misstep, despite the massive abuse that followed.
Killians recent email also appears to contradict his own prior public statements about the MEALS Act and Omars role in it. In a LinkedIn post from a year ago, reviewed by Fox News Digital, he described the legislation in far more expansive terms, crediting Omar directly for its passage and impact.
"When I worked in Congresswoman Ilhan Omars office during the pandemic, she wrote and passed the MEALS Act, a vital bill funding schools and feeding all kids," Killian wrote at the time. In the same post, he said the bill laid "the groundwork" for broader school meals policy, a characterization that clashes sharply with his new claim that the MEALS Act "never even passed" and was not the vehicle for the fraud-fueling waivers.
Underscoring the patronizing tone of his message to Robbins, Killian appended a P.S. linking to the famous Schoolhouse Rock cartoon "Im Just a Bill," a childrens video explaining how legislation becomes law. "Its shameful," Robbins told Fox News Digital, describing the email as an example of Omars "henchmen" going after her rather than addressing legitimate oversight questions.
"We have had no official response from the congresswoman, but they have a former district director, which is the most senior position, and he sent it to me and the Democrat lead on the committee," Robbins said, noting the political implications. "So he's clearly wanting to have Democrats push back on me and say, Robbins doesn't know what she's talking about, this wasn't really Ilhan's bill, it never passed, which is just BS."
Notably, Killians letter sidestepped the specific inquiries the committee posed to Omar in a recent formal letter, which the congresswoman has ignored. Those questions focus on Omars connections to individuals in Minnesotas Somali community who have been charged or implicated in the Feeding Our Future case, as well as her public promotion of entities later tied to the fraud.
The committee has requested that Omar turn over communications showing how she promoted expanded access to federal child nutrition programs, including emails, text messages and meeting records with the Minnesota Department of Education and constituents. Lawmakers are seeking to understand whether her advocacy for broader waivers and looser rules intersected with the activities of those now accused of defrauding the system.
The panels request also zeroed in on Omars public promotion of a Minneapolis restaurant that later became entangled in the scandal. Robbins cited a Somali-language television appearance in which Omar highlighted Safari Restaurant as a meal distribution site and has asked for all communications related to that video and the restaurants participation in the program.
"She fought to keep the waivers in place during the time that Safari and the other fraudsters were making their money," Robbins told Fox News Digital, arguing that Omars political pressure helped sustain the very flexibilities that bad actors exploited. For conservatives concerned about accountability, the question is not whether children should have been fed, but whether basic safeguards were sacrificed in the rush to expand government programs.
The committee is also seeking records of any contact between Omar and a long list of individuals charged or implicated in the Feeding Our Future case, including nonprofit founder Aimee Bock and dozens of alleged co-conspirators. In addition, lawmakers want information about political donations Omar received from individuals later charged in the case, requesting "any and all" communications with those donors to determine whether there were improper relationships or quid pro quo arrangements.
In a follow-up response to Fox News Digital, Killian did not directly say whether his original email was coordinated with Omar or her official office, instead characterizing it as his personal "perspective." He did, however, concede that "very similar language" from the MEALS Act was included in the broader coronavirus relief package that became law, effectively acknowledging the substantive overlap that Robbins and other critics have highlighted.
Killian argued that responsibility for the fraud lies primarily with those who implemented and oversaw the program, pointing the finger at both federal and state officials, and singling out Minnesotas Democratic governor. "It was then overseen by the Trump USDA. And then governors like Walz. Frankly, Governor Walzdeserves the same level of scrutiny as this Fox inquiry," Killian wrote. "At the end of the day, it was Governor Walz who [expletive] this up."
He further attempted to separate Omars legislative work from the fraud itself by asserting that "no fraud took place at actual public schools" and that "the nonprofits did," adding that "Ilhans bill was focused on the former." Yet the same waiver authority he downplays allowed meals to be distributed far beyond traditional school cafeterias, including at restaurants and community sites later identified as hubs of fraudulent activity, blurring the line between the two systems in practice.
Killian also brushed off the inconsistency between his past claim that Omar "wrote and passed" the MEALS Act and his new assertion that it "never even passed," describing the discrepancy as a matter of "casual" or imprecise language. He did not directly reconcile the contradiction, leaving critics to question whether the shifting narrative is driven more by political damage control than by factual clarity.
Omars office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital, continuing a pattern of silence as the state-level investigation intensifies. The congresswoman was given a deadline of May 5 to respond to the committees document request, which she missed without explanation, and she has yet to offer any public statement addressing the substance of the allegations.
After Omar failed to meet the deadline, the committee moved to subpoena her for the requested information, only to be blocked by Democrats on the panel in a strict party-line vote. "Its the same story every time," Robbins posted on X after the vote. "Fraud is committed, information is suppressed, and the dysfunction continues."
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